The Start Of Papyra Scribe
by Papyra Scribe
Summary: This is a slightly shameful self insert, and first fanfic. Please read, rate, and comment! The rating may or may not change in future chapters...
1. Chapter 1

Her wings hidden by the violet cloak she wore, she headed toward the gates. It was unguarded and unmanned, but that didn't concern her. In fact, she was glad for it. She had no explanation of who she was to give them, and wasn't entirely sure that what was happening wasn't a dream. This morning, if her pony brain could remember right, she had been human. Now, though, she was a full grown pony headed for Ponyville.

She stopped, and thought for a moment. Maybe she shouldn't walk through the gate yet. Pulling the cloak tighter, she headed into the nearby woods. The grass was rough on her flank sitting down, but she needed a rest. Walking all day had taken its toll on her, and she was beat. When she went to lay down, she noticed there were saddle bags on her back. She maneuvered them off, not quite used to her new pony body and looked inside. There were a few books, a bag of apples, a mirror, and a note.

'Well, at least I have something to eat...' She thought to herself. She tried picking up an apple with her hoof, but the lack of opposable thumbs made it just a bit difficult. She tried using both of her hooves, not amused as it fell back into the bag. On the third attempt, she accidentally managed to mash it into bits leaving a mess of apple and peel behind. With a sigh, she licked up what she could, and wiped her hooves against where her pants would have been. An attempted facepalm at getting apple all over herself resulted in a large bump on her head from her hoof. Frustrated, she flopped down. Walking as a pony had been easy, just one foot in front of the other. Muscle memory had actually mostly taken care of that, but all of this fine motor skill stuff was really not working out.

Finally deciding to look at the note, she pulled it through the dirt with her hoof, adding to the mess. Luckily, it was still legible.

Hello,

I hope you don't mind, but I examined your life and

felt that you could use a change. So I gave you a new body

and a new life. Your new name is Paryra Scribe. I'm sorry

I couldn't give you a cutie mark, even with my advanced

capabilities, but as an avid fan I'm sure you remember that

a cutie mark can't be forced, but will come when it's ready.

You should read the book labeled, 'Scribble's Journal'. This

will give you an idea of what your new life is like. If you

don't like what I've done for you by the end of the month,

I'll return you to the place you were before.

Good Luck

It hadn't occurred to her to do so before now, but she decided to see what she looked like. She decided to try using her mouth to maneuver the mirror in her bag, instead of her hooves. This worked a little better, but the mirror did end up a little fogged. Waiting for the mirror to defog, she nuzzled through the books, looking for the journal, finally understanding that her hooves were not what she should use to manipulate objects. She was going to have to think like a pony now.

The mirror had cleared by the time she pulled the book out. It was a little mirror, she would have called it a hand-mirror if she still had hands. In it she saw a beautiful onyx filly with a violet mane. Her eyes were a deep forest green behind large round glasses with a starry night black frame. She stared at her reflection a bit, wondering if this really could be her. It _had _been a fantasy of hers to actually become a pony and go to Ponyville, and in her fantasies this was always the colors she imagined herself to be. She looked at her flank, and it was true that she didn't have a cutie mark.

Despite all of these amazing things, she still wasn't sure she wanted to do this. After all, it's not like she had asked for this, and considering the trouble she was having starting out she wasn't even sure if even the fantasy was worth it. In fact, just walking this far had been a pain in her hindquarters. Couldn't she have, at least, been dropped off closer? As she thought, she started to get a little pissed off. Who was this mysterious person who had suddenly decided that her old life hadn't been worth living as such. Why couldn't she have decided on her own if she had actually wanted to enter this new world or not. While it was true she probably would have jumped at the chance, a little consent would have been appreciated. In a dispelling of being upset she bucked her hind legs against a tree, in turn causing a branch to fall on her. In frustration and pain she shook her head. With a resigned sigh, she started to realize that she was stuck here for a month anyway, so she may as well try to enjoy it. Looking on the bright side, she might be able to get a cutie mark.

Nervously, she opened the journal to learn about her new life. As she read, images came up in her mind. Little pieces of memory created or unlocked, she couldn't tell which, told her of her new life's story. Papayra Scribe and who she was before did have a lot in common. A father who constantly kept her working and told her that the only way she could earn a living was by working very, very hard, A kind mother, who wanted to help out as many people as possible, and the pushing aside of what they truly enjoyed doing to take care of other business. Which would often include chores around the house, working at a loathed job, higher education and the work that came from it, and basic functions like eating and sleeping. Unlike who she was before, Papyra had grown up in a small apartment above a small library. Her daily chores had consisted of shelving books and cleaning said shelves. Work that she didn't mind, but her siblings kept messing up at every turn. Her job consisted of managing a counter in a store, in a city only a little ways away from the town she had lived in. She had to be nice and polite to ponies that didn't care if she was alive or dead, so long as they got their diet foods and useless junk. Getting a higher education hadn't been so bad for Papyra, but she had to work in order to be able to afford the education, hence the hated job. It wasn't even a subject of interest for her. It was supposed to be a backup plan for if her main purpose in life couldn't earn her a living, and at the rate _that_ was going, her backup plan was looking more and more like it would take the place of her main plan.

Papyra shed a tear reading over this pony's journal. _Her_ journal. This was almost the story of the life she had before, but in pony form. If she had taken the time as a human to write down her life, it would have sounded almost exactly like what was in this.

She grabbed another apple out of the bag using her mouth this time, and was able to successfully eat it by balancing it on her hoof when taking bites. A feather pen had been stashed in the back of the book, and a tiny vial of ink was embedded on the inside of the cover. She used what little ink there was to write a new entry. Surprisingly, the one fine motor skill that her muscle memory had decided to help her with was holding the pen in her mouth and being able to actually use it to write legibly. Rolling her eyes was the only response she could manage for this, as her mouth was full of pen. She recapped the ink, and put the pen back before picking up the stuff that had spilled out of her bag. From inside another book, apparently a false book, had fallen a purse with some coins in it.

'That'll come in handy.' She thought to herself. She put that back in her bag as well. She headed back towards the road, still nervous and a little upset, but at least she knew who she was now. When she arrived back at the road, she noticed a small pond on the other side. She looked both ways before heading toward it, as cleaning herself up a bit was probably not a bad idea. She had gotten about halfway across when something big and colorful slammed into her side, making her tumble with whatever it was for several yards until coming to a crashing stop, with whatever had hit her pinning her down.


	2. Chapter 2

Papyra shook her her head, and took stock of her situation. She was on her back, her wings against the hard dirt road. Laying across her stomach was the thing that had hit her, pinning her down. She looked down to see what it was. She was surprised to find that it was actually a pony, and a pegasus pony at that! She was sky blue, with a mane that formed a beautiful, perfect rainbow and a matching tail. This pegasus looked back at Papyra, The big purple eyes looked back into hers. Papayra'sponymemories knew this pony, but the new pony memories refused to let her remember the name. The pegasus laughed as she got off of Papyra.

"Sorry about that," The pegasus spread her wings to launch into the air again, "A random gust got me, probably just somepony playing a prank. Hope I didn't hurt you."

Papyra found that her wings were spread too when she picked herself up. "It's okay, I don't think I'm hurt." She noticed the cutie mark on the pony in front of her. A rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. Theponymemories were screaming at her who it was, and were acting very excitable. But again, the pony brain refused to give in. This arguing in her head was giving her a headache. The pegasus gave her a strange look.

"I don't think I've seen you around town before, are you new?" She asked Papyra. Papyra ran her fore-hoof in the dirt before responding.

"Ya, I just came from Oatburg." This was where her pony memories had told her she was from.

"I don't think I've heard of Oatburg," The other pony puzzled, "But welcome to Ponyville!" The pony struck a pose. "I'm Rainbow Dash! If you need some help, let me know!"

Papyra looked down and smiled a little shyly. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Rainbow Dash smiled at Papyra, "Anyway, I have to get going. It's supposed to rain soon, and I still have to gather up some more clouds." In a rainbow arch she flew into an already cloud filled sky.

'Crap,' Papyra thought to herself, she hated rain. 'Better find cover before it starts.' She picked up what had fallen from her bag and ran into the town. As she galloped through the streets, she looked into shop windows trying to find a place that she could hide from the oncoming downpour. Everypony was starting to close their shops, as it was starting to get late. Finally, at the center of town was a giant tree with a sign; Open. She dashed inside just before the rain started falling. She stuck her tongue out at the rain in victory. It was a little immature, but she felt she had earned it. When she turned around, she saw she was in a library. With a pony shrug she started to see what there was to read. After all, there could be worse places she could be stuck, right?

The door opened and lightning struck outside, silhouetting two figures in the doorway, a pony in a cloak with glowing eyes, and a smaller shape with sharp claws and a wicked looking spine. Papyra shrieked, crashing into the bookcase. An avalanche of paper and binding fell down, covering her.

"Oh my goodness!" she heard a gentle voice exclaim. She felt the books being moved off of her, and soon saw a unicorn pony using magic to unbury her. Running around the room, a purple baby dragon was also helping. The unicorn pony was purple with a star cutie mark that had six points and a smaller six pointed star behind that. Her mane was cut into a practical style which kept it out of the way of her eyes, while still being stylish.

"Are you okay?" The purple pony asked.

"I think so," Papyra laughed, "It's not the first time I've been buried under books." she smiled. This was true in both her pony andponymemories, and faced with the realities around her, she wasn't sure if theponymemories were even real.

"So what are you doing here?" The new pony inquired.

"I saw the sign saying this place was open, so I ran inside before the rain started. I figured there are worse places to be stuck in than a library."

"Oh," The pony replied, "I was actually just about to close down the library for the night, especially since nopony wants to go out in the rain. But, I suppose I can let you stay until it stops in a couple hours, miss...?"

"Papyra Scribe." She replied. The other pony gave Papyra a strange look and suddenly Papyra realized how she must look without having had a chance to clean up. "I'm sorry, I know I'm a mess. It's been..." She thought a moment, searching for the right word, "An interesting day." Papyra started to help pick up some of the mess she had made. A couple times when she went to pick a book up, the little dragon zipped by, grabbing and shelving it before Papyra knew what had happened.

The unicorn pony giggled, "I remember my first day in Ponyville."

"How did you know it was my first day here?" Papyra stopped what she was doing, suddenly curious.

"I ran into my friend Rainbow Dash on the way home, and she told my she had crashed into an onyx colored pony who was new in town, so I came to a reasonable conclusion that the new pony was you." she smiled, "That and Rainbow told me what the name of the new pony was, I'm going to assume that there's only one Papyra Scribe in town at this point."

"Right..." Papyra gave a sheepish grin. News apparently spread fast in Ponyville. The bookvalanche was soon cleaned up andeveryponywas settled.

"I'm sorry, I never gave you my name." The other pony realized, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is my number one assistant, Spike." She motioned to the baby dragon.

"It's nice to meet you two." Papyra bowed her head down. "And again, thanks for letting me wait out the rain."

"Don't worry about it," Twilight pulled down a couple of books from the shelves. "Sometimes it's nice to have some company besides Spike when I'm studying."

"Hay!" Spike didn't seem amused.

"Relax," Twilight turned to him, "She's only going to be here for a little while longer, and I actually need another pony for some of the spells I want to practice." She smiled at Papyra a little too big for comfort.

"Um..." Papyra had to think this through for a moment. She should help out because Twilight had kept the library open longer just for her, but having spells cast on her the first day in she was in Ponyville didn't sound like the brightest idea. On the other hoof, her day really couldn't get much worse from it, right?  
>"Okay..." She reluctantly agreed. Twilight jumped in the air for joy.<p>

"I'll be right back, I just have to grab some notes from my room." With a flash of light from her horn, she disappeared.

"You might want to be careful about letting her practice some of them with you." Spike told Papyra, "She's started to invent spells, and I think the one she wants to test is the one that'll make another pony teleport like she just did. She hasn't gotten a chance to test this version of it yet." He ran over to a nearby stool and sat down. "This should be good!"

A flash of light announced Twilight's return. She had a bunch of scrolls with her that flew to nearby stands, opening to reveal their contents to her. Surrounding herself with the stands she set a clear workspace in the center of the room. "Now just stand right there in the center of the room and hold VERY still."

Papyra nodded, and with a gulp did as she had been told. Standing there, she looked at Twilight with a little bit of fear. The pony's horn started to glow.

"What's this supposed to do exactly?" Papyra asked, nervous.

"It's a spell that should teleport you upstairs." Papyra responded looking over her notes and making adjustments here and there to the magic.

"Why can't I just take the stairs?" The feathers on her wings hidden under her cloak were starting to get ruffled.

"Because," Twilight responded, not realizing Papyra's worry, "If I can teleport you up the stairs, It would be a huge leap in my research." Twilight closed the scrolls. "I'm ready!" she announced.

Papyra steadied herself, as Twilight started to send the light on her horn toward her. On his stool, Spike had somehow produced some popcorn and a pair of sunglasses. Munching contentedly, he watched as the light surrounded the pony that had agreed to be a part of this experiment.

Papyra's view was completely concealed by the light wrapping her up snuggly. It felt physical, like a blanket, but cool instead of warm. This was it, now or never! She closed her eyes, afraid of the outcome...


End file.
